Remote identification of polar bear maternal den habitat in northern Alaska. Arctic 54:115–121

ABSTRACT. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) give birth in dens of ice and snow to protect their altricial young. During the snow-free season, we visited 25 den sites located previously by radiotelemetry and characterized the den site physiognomy. Seven dens occurred in habitats with minimal relief. Eigh...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: George M. Durner, Steven C. Amstrup, Ken J. Ambrosius
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2001
Subjects:
Key words
aerial photography
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
den habitat
maternal den
photo interpretation
National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska
polar bear
Prudhoe Bay
Ursus maritimus
Arctic
Alaska
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.521.7757
http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic54-2-115.pdf
Description
Summary:ABSTRACT. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) give birth in dens of ice and snow to protect their altricial young. During the snow-free season, we visited 25 den sites located previously by radiotelemetry and characterized the den site physiognomy. Seven dens occurred in habitats with minimal relief. Eighteen dens (72%) were in coastal and river banks. These “banks ” were identifiable on aerial photographs. We then searched high-resolution aerial photographs (n = 3000) for habitats similar to those of the 18 dens. On aerial photos, we mapped 1782 km of bank habitats suitable for denning. Bank habitats comprised 0.18 % of our study area between the Colville River and the Tamayariak River in northern Alaska. The final map, which correctly identified 88 % of bank denning habitat in this region, will help minimize the potential for disruptions of maternal dens by winter petroleum exploration activities.

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